The spring weather encourages a lighter touch to our cooking, and in my kitchen at least, a greater emphasis on main course salads. The leafy base may include some of the crisp, refreshingly bitter chicories and mild, mixed spring leaves but this is also when sprouted seeds and members of the cress family can be used to add everything from mustardy heat to a soft, earthy sweetness. Depending on the occasion, a spring salad can contain anything from noisettes of lamb to shavings of farmhouse cheese or some cheap and cheerful chicken livers. The protein element is really playing a supporting role to the wealth of new spring leaves and seedlings.

FRIED NEW POTATO SALAD WITH DILL, SOURED CREAM AND CHICKEN LIVERS

Substantial and quite rich, this is an economical main course salad using that cheap, underused delicacy, chicken livers. I go against modern advice and serve mine pink in the middle. It's up to you.

Check the chicken livers for any dark patches, trimming where necessary, then put them in a mixing bowl with the milk and leave for 20 minutes. This is to remove any bitterness that may be present. The milk will also form a pleasing crust on your livers as they cook.

Scrub the potatoes, then boil them in salted water for 8-10 minutes till almost tender. Drain, then crush them lightly with a potato masher so that the skins break and the potatoes crumble slightly.

Warm the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan, add the potatoes and leave them to cook for 10 minutes till they are crisp and golden, turning them once to cook the other side. If they crumble during cooking, then all to the good – there will more crispness that way.

While the potatoes are cooking, drain the livers and season with salt and black pepper. Cut the bacon into short pieces, about the width of a postage stamp. Melt the butter in a frying pan and when it is hot add the bacon and then, as it starts to crisp, the drained chicken livers.

Make the dressing: put the soured cream in a bowl. Chop the dill and add it to the soured cream with the capers. Sharpen with a little vinegar, just a drop or two, if you like a sharper dressing.

Assemble the salad: put the potatoes on a warm serving dish, tip the chicken livers and bacon over the top, then trickle the dressing over.

PEAR AND CHEESE WITH SPROUTED SEEDS

Crisp, mild, light and fresh, this is the antidote to the big-flavoured salad. I prefer to use hard, glassy-fleshed pears straight from the fridge for this, rather than the usual ripe ones. Any sprouted seeds can be used, including young pea shoots, wine-red amaranth or purple radish. The easy-to-find bags of mixed sprouts are good here, too. The cheese is up to you. Something with a deep, fruity flavour is probably best, though I have used firm goat's cheeses on occasion, too. Rather than slicing it thickly, I remove shavings from the cheese with a vegetable peeler. A sort of contemporary ploughman's lunch.

To make the dressing, put the yoghurt into a bowl and whisk in the olive oil and a little salt and black pepper. Chop the herbs and stir into the yoghurt.

Put the frisée or trevisse leaves in a mixing bowl. Halve the pears, remove the cores and slice thinly, then add them to the herb and yoghurt dressing.

Put the salad leaves on a serving dish. Pile the pears and their dressing on top. Using a vegetable peeler, shave off small, thin slices of the cheese and scatter over the salad with the assorted sprouted seeds.

FIVE-SPICE CHICKEN AND PEA SHOOT SALAD

Sometimes you can find raw, diced chicken at the butcher's or supermarket, but if not, then a mixture of thigh and breast, coarsely diced, is fine, too. Rabbit would also be an option.

SERVES 2

For the salad:pea shoots 2 or 3 large handfulsyoung, small, salad leaves a mixed bag will do sprouted seeds or cress a couple of handfuls

Prepare the salad: wash the pea shoots and salad leaves and spin or shake them dry.

Peel the ginger and grate it to a pulp, scraping every bit from the grater into a mixing bowl. Finely slice the chilli, add it to the ginger, then stir in the five-spice powder. Peel and crush the garlic then add it to the ginger. Pour in the oil and mix thoroughly. Add the chicken to the ginger mixture and toss the ingredients together.

Get a wok or frying pan really hot. Add the diced chicken and its dressing to the pan and let it cook over a high heat for 6 or 7 minutes, stirring from time to time, until it is cooked through. (A lid will help the chicken to cook right through.) Add the sugar, stir-fry for a further minute, then add the lime juice and salt generously.

Add the pea shoots and salad leaves to the wok, toss for a few seconds till they have started to wilt and darken, then tip everything into bowls. Scatter with the sprouted seeds or cress and serve immediately.

A SALAD OF SPRING LAMB, LEMON AND OLIVES

Small, peppery or spicy spring leaves work well with lamb, and especially so when they are tossed with a lemon-scented dressing. Rocket leaves, young dandelions, bitter frisée or watercress are good here. The dressing, which utilises the flavour left behind in the pan after the lamb has been cooked, should be tossed with the leaves at the very last minute.

Season the lamb on both sides with salt, pepper and a little olive oil. To start the dressing, remove the needles from the rosemary and chop them finely. Flatten the garlic cloves with the side of a large knife or using a pestle. No need to peel – just squash them lightly. You want only a subtle hint of garlic in the dressing. Remove 6 short strips of peel from the lemon. Roughly chop the olives.

Place a non-stick frying pan over a moderate heat, then, as soon as it is hot, put the oiled and seasoned lamb into the pan and let it sizzle for a couple of minutes, until it is light walnut brown on the underside. Turn the meat over and cook the other side for a further 3 or 4 minutes. Check the meat is cooked to your liking, then lift out and leave to rest on a warm plate, covered with foil, while you quickly make the dressing.

Discard any fat from the pan but leave the sticky golden sediment remaining – it will form the base of the dressing. Put the pan back on the heat, pour in the 4 tbsp of olive oil, then add the rosemary needles and the flattened garlic cloves. Add the lemon peel to the pan, squeezing each piece as you go to release the lemon oil. Leave the aromatics to flavour the oil for 2 or 3 minutes.

Put the salad leaves in a mixing bowl. Add the olives to the pan – they only need to warm through. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon and a grinding of black pepper and salt. Stir the pan briefly with a wooden spatula, scraping any undissolved pan stickings from the lamb into the dressing, then tip over the salad leaves.

Immediately divide the salad and its warm dressing between two plates, place the noisettes on top and serve.

CRAB, AVOCADO AND LIME SALAD

A luxurious salad for a special occasion. I sometimes use this as a first course instead of a light lunch, in which case it will serve three, rather elegantly. In a perfect world you could use your own home-cooked crab, but I often use ready-dressed crab from the fishmonger.

Seed and very finely chop the chilli. Cut the spring onions into very fine slices and add to the chilli. Peel the cucumber, halve it, scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon, then dice the flesh finely into tiny cubes. Remove the flesh from the avocados and dice finely. Toss the cucumber and avocado with the onions and chilli.

Put the palm sugar or caster sugar in a small mixing bowl, add the fish sauce and lime juice, then stir till the sugar is dissolved. Chop the coriander leaves and stir into the dressing. No further seasoning is necessary.

Toast the slices of ciabatta till crisp, rub with the cut-side of the lime to release a little of the juice, then trickle over enough olive oil to saturate each one.

Put the crab meat in a mixing bowl, pour over the dressing and toss very gently, using a fork to mix. Pile on to plates and serve with the lime toasts.